Sorry for the rant, but I'm so stoked on Silverton and couldn't help myself:
I skied Silverton last week as a birthday present to myself, and it was incredible — tied with Japan as the best powder and coolest place I've ever skied. During the regular season, you are required to pay for a guide, so my girlfriend and I paid for two guided days. At 4 am, as we were on our way there, Red Mountain Pass (the only route into Silverton from the north) avalanched and was closed by CODOT for over ten hours, so we had to wait around for it to open and missed our first day skiing. We were pretty bummed at first, but thankfully, they were super nice about it and gave us a heli drop on our second day (which costs roughly the same as a guided day) in exchange for missing that first day. Super chill of them considering it technically says online they are not liable for roads closing / extreme weather events.
As others said, getting in a good group and guide is key. Ours were both great: everyone skied and hiked at a similar pace and we got in seven laps on seven different lines, which is a lot considering each is 2000' +. We also got lucky with the weather, as it was bluebird and the snowpack had just stabilized enough for us to ski some big, exposed lines which had been "closed" to guided groups up until then. Every run was untracked, blower, deep powder top to bottom - not surprising considering there are only about 70 people on the mountain on a pow day, compared to thousands at a normal resort, and that the San Juans reliably get pounded with more snow than a lot of other places in CO. As others said, the terrain wasn't anything totally insane - no crazy steep or super narrow chutes, no butt-puckering exposure, no mandatory airs, or anything scary technical like that. But the snow was perfect and the terrain still super enjoyable. The people are awesome too.
TL;DR: In my experience, Silverton 100% delivered on what it was supposed to be: a unique, remote, ungentrified, close-to-pure big mountain skiing experience. In their ads Silverton says they "guarantee" powder skiing at this time of year, and that was definitely true for me. It's expensive ($180 per day), but not that much compared to other Western resorts, def the cheapest way to heli ski in North America, and totally unique and worth that money, IMO. Plus, the vibe is awesome. Just one lift and one small "beer yurt" as a lodge where everyone parties after - since it was my 21st, everyone bought me drinks and I did a shot ski with my two guides. No one is a gaper, everyone loves skiing, and they're there to rip with likeminded people. OP, you should send it!
